My name is Rick and I am a traveller. Let me take you on some of my trips.

Saturday, 17 December 2016

Augustusburg Hunting Lodge

My human family told me that they plan to visit the Augustusburg castle. I said "Great, it is one of the most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany". Too late did I discover that they actually meant the Augustusburg Hunting Lodge in Saxony while I meant the Augustusburg Castle in North Rhine-Westphalia. But small disappointments can sometimes turn into nice surprises. Let me then take you to the first Augustusburg castle on our trail. I do trust that we will see the other one some day as well.

The castle is located on a hill that is 516 meters high, on top of the town called (yes, you surely guessed) Augustusburg. It is surrounded by a park, in which you can find the "Fairytale Fountain" (Märchenbrunnen).

Let's take this path and go up the hill. Be careful, the fallen leaves are slippery.

The castle is surrounded by a long wall. It is white, with details in a colour that my human secretary calls "coral" and I will simply call orange.

As we approach from the North, first we need to pass the house of the guards.

Then comes the main entrance to the castle.

The inner courtyard is surprisingly vast.

Since Saxony is no longer ruled by a Prince-Elector, the castle is nowadays a museum. Let's go inside.

The Augustusburg castle was designed mainly to be a summer retreat and a hunting lodge. Once you enter inside, you cannot be mistaken about its original role. There are traces of both hunting ...

... and summertime leisure.

I can only hope that after having one of these mugs that could hold probably two litres of beer nobody tried to actually use the hunting equipment.

Through the window you can see the backyard. We will go there as well in a moment.

On the right you can see the Zschopau valley that lies beneath the Schellenberg hill.

Let's go out again and check on the backyard. We need to take the South gate.

In the old castle’s farm buildings we will find the Stage Coach Museum. Some of the carriages exhibited there are simply amazing. This one has the coat of arm's of Saxony.

This one is called a berlin and was probably at some point in time covered with golden ornaments.

The museum has also some less exclusive exhibits.

There is even a cabrio!

But I liked best this winter edition. Horse-drawn sledges must have been real fun. Though not for the horses of course.

I hope that you agree with me that travelling always brings some fun, even if it is another type of fun that one would expect. The Saxon Augustusburg Castle proved to be a nice piece of architecture.

Look, it is getting late! The sundials are maybe not as accurate as modern clocks but without any doubt they indicate that it is time to move on to new adventures.